Beam, bar and rod cross section

[Anonymous]

Dear all,

I have a problem in getting the cross-section area of beams, bars or rods in a finite element simulation. I actually have an entire data file containing different kind of 1D elements and I need to extract informations from them, like the cross section area.

I easily get the value, but I am not sure what type of cross section is, is it a circular one, a square one, or another profile ? And if it is not circular, can I get the orientation of the area linked to the next element ? I cannot find the information in the autodesk knowledge of nastran.

Hope it is clear, thank you if you can help me with that problem.

[John_Holtz · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous 

What data file do you have that gives all of the information?

If you know the cross-sectional properties (such as area, moments of inertia, and so on), I do not know of any method to convert that back to the original shape (circular, rectangular tube, and so on). But why do you need to know the original shape? You should be able to enter the cross-sectional properties directly.

The orientation of the beam elements in a Nastran file is defined on the CBEAM card. Either a node is specified (G0) that defines the element XY plane, or a vector is specified (X1, X2, X3).

Here are a few additional questions:

1. What interface are you using to create the model?
2. What version of Nastran are you using?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Yes you are right I actually don't need the cross section type as long as I have the moment of inertia and the area.

I am using a data model containing thousands of elements (beams, rods, quad4 ...) and I need to implement the data in code aster in order to simulate it on salome meca. Therefore, I have to get the elements properties and define it on code aster. I will directly write the moment of inertia and the area without writing the cross section type.

Thanks for your answer.